The German Last Mile Initiative is supporting partners in Tajikistan to meet the national vaccination target for COVID-19 by training nurses to administer vaccines in primary health care settings. GIZ implements the financed measures through the Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health project. The project is helping to develop standards which can be used to train nurses who specialise in vaccination in primary health care settings. It has also supported six trainers to conduct training-of-trainer sessions for 45 participants who have, in turn, trained over 1,700 nurses in accordance with these standards. Thanks to the training of nurses and the vaccination equipment being procured by the project, it will be possible in the future to carry out other vaccinations as well.
German development cooperation also supports the procurement of automated DNA/RNA extraction instruments for government-run laboratories in Tajikistan. These machines can be used for COVID-19 diagnostics, as well as for all other PCR-based diagnostic methods. Two regional laboratories are being equipped with support from the German Last Mile Initiative and their staff are being trained to use the provided equipment. Further trainings of selected staff are being organised with partner institutions in Germany.
- Executing project: Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Project
- Implementing organisation: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
- Commissioned by: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
- Local partners: Ministry of Health and Social Protection, Tajik Research Institute for Preventive Medicine, National Reference Laboratory, State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance Service, district laboratories, Immunisation Centre
- Funding: EUR 1 m from Last Mile Initiative (in addition to EUR 25.76 m core funding)
- Contact: larissa.duddeck@giz.de